Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to a touch screen panel, method of manufacturing the touch screen panel and a touch display device including the touch screen panel.
Discussion of the Background
As demands on various types of display devices have increased with the development of an information society, studies on display devices, such as liquid crystal display devices, plasma display panels, field emission display devices, electrophoretic display devices, organic light emitting display devices, and the like, have been conducted. These studies have given rise to an ability to apply a touch screen panel function to such display devices. A touch screen panel is an input device that enables a command to be input by touching (or almost touching) a screen of a display device using an object, such as a finger, pen, etc. In this manner, a touch screen panel can substitute for a separate input device connected to a display device, such as a keyboard, mouse, and the like.
Touch screen panels may be resistive overlay touch screen panels, photosensitive touch screen panels, capacitive touch screen panels, and the like. Among the various types of touch screen panels, capacitive touch screen panels are configured to convert information regarding a position(s) of a touch interaction into an electrical signal by sensing a change in capacitance formed between a conductive sensing pattern and an adjacent sensing pattern, ground electrode, or the like, when an object, such as a user appendage, pen, etc., comes in contact with (or almost contacts, e.g., hovers above) the touch screen panel.
Generally, a touch electrode of a touch screen panel may be formed of a transparent conductive material, such as indium tin oxide (ITO). It is noted, however, that ITO is relatively expensive, and, as such, manufacturing costs increase with the use of ITO. As such, a touch electrode using opaque metal mesh patterns are of interest because opaque metal mesh patterns typically have a relatively high electrical conductivity and are less expensive than ITO. Metal mesh patterns, however, typically have a fine thickness and may be damaged as a result of an external impact. The “damage” may be recognized (viewed by an observer) as a stain on an accompanying display device due to reflectivity differences of damaged metal.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.